News | Climate Preparedness | 05.24.17

Climate Mitigation Highlighted in Preview of Imagine Boston 2030

The Boston Globe’s Tim Logan gave readers a preview of what to expect in the Imagine Boston 2030 plan. Climate Mitigation is one of the main themes.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh is set to unveil the nearly-final version of the Imagine Boston 2030 plan, a pile of goals and maps and pictures that lays out how his administration – and thousands of Bostonians who weighed in with their ideas – wants the city to grow over the coming years.

It builds on a preview laid out last year that envisioned dense new neighborhoods in tucked-away corners of Boston, better transit connections between poorer pockets and jobs downtown, and a greener city, oriented around its waterfront, but also built to withstand whatever climate change may throw at it.

Here’s what he had to say about Climate.

Climate change is coming. The plan continues to flesh out ideas to help Boston adapt to rising sea levels. All those new neighborhoods would be designed with higher flood risk in mind. New “flood management areas” are envisioned along Boston Harbor, the Mystic River and Dorchester Bay. And more waterfront open space could help both connect neighborhoods to the harbor and buffer against the impacts of flooding.

Perhaps even more ambitious: Imagine Boston calls for Boston to be “carbon-neutral” by 2050, which would mean a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that have fallen 17 percent since 2005. How that will happen remains to be figured out, but city officials said they’ll focus on reducing emissions from cars and trucks, buildings, power usage and waste.